


a protector

by aesphantasmal



Series: victorian au [3]
Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: (mutual even though the fic is from junos perspective), Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Other, Pining, Repression, im back babey, injury cw, they're not together but they are painfully in love, victorian au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:39:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25477042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aesphantasmal/pseuds/aesphantasmal
Summary: Juno returns home to find someone has been searching his house.
Relationships: Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel
Series: victorian au [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1710925
Comments: 22
Kudos: 71





	a protector

**Author's Note:**

> alright lads whos ready for pining  
> very cool art by naegkawa (https://naegkawa.tumblr.com/post/624543249402642432/juno-couldnt-even-allow-himself-to-entertain-the)

Juno mumbled curses as he fumbled with the keys to his front door. The rain had been driving down for hours now, soaking him through. He had managed to borrow an umbrella from Rita, but it had been too windy to even open it for most of his journey. By the time he'd been able to return home, he was drenched, cold, exhausted, and grumpy. The rain blew through the door in the seconds before he slammed it shut. He was halfway through pulling off his coat when he noticed what a state of disarray the room was in.

Around half of the cabinets and drawers had been opened, their contents haphazardly moved aside. There was a lit candle on the floor next to one of them, like it had been abandoned in a hurry. From what little Juno could see of his kitchen and bedroom through their open doors, the situation seemed to be much the same there, if not worse. The level of chaos his house had been thrown into was such that he did not immediately notice the man watching him, half hidden by the kitchen doorframe. He reached for his pistol on instinct, until he realised who the intruder was.

"Nureyev?" Juno asked, too exhausted from the day's work to be shocked or, more likely, angry. "Why are you here?"

This was, perhaps, the most dishevelled Juno had ever seen Nureyev. Which, of course, meant he looked significantly better than Juno on a good day. Still, he looked windswept, and his hair and clothes were clearly wet, and he was dressed more plainly than Juno usually saw him dress.

"Is a man not allowed to visit his lady friend?"

"In theory, yes, but you're not here for a social call. If you were waiting for me, you wouldn't have been caught off guard when I got home. What were you looking for?"

"I have no idea what you mean, Juno, dear."

"The doors of the cabinets are open. And even though you appear to have been here long enough to ransack my house, you haven't completely dried off yet. So, you can't have been in here more than… fifteen minutes? Half an hour at most. Not long enough to start rummaging through my stuff because you got _bored_."

"I'm not here to steal with your valuables, Juno. I don't know how many times I need to tell you that before you'll believe me."

"What were you doing, then?"

"It's a long story."

"Do you have somewhere to be?"

Nureyev sighed. "No, not for a few days, I suppose." He walked into Juno's living room properly and sat down on the couch. He arranged his coat in an attempt to keep the couch as dry as possible, though he didn't remove it before beginning his story.

"I stole some paintings and sculptures when I was in Paris. Of course, I couldn't exactly resell them in Paris, people won't hang something in their gallery if everyone knows it was stolen last month, so I moved them here. I was meeting with a potential buyer, but apparently he had not been as careful as I am, and someone on his staff had informed the police, so I had to make my escape, and, well…. I needed somewhere safe."

Juno almost protested that, but they were far past the point of any pretense that Juno was going to arrest him.

"That still doesn't explain what you were looking for, Nureyev."

"Medical supplies."

"Medical—"

"Just some small scrapes, no cause for concern, Juno."

"Nureyev." Juno stepped closer, and Nureyev instinctively pulled his coat tighter around himself. Then, he sighed, meeting Juno's eyes, and pulled it aside.

"Good lord, Nureyev, that's a little more than a scrape." Nureyev's clothes were too dark to clearly discern quite how much blood there was, which was probably a good thing for Juno. He would prefer not to ever see that much blood, let alone when the person bleeding was someone he —

He shook his head to clear it. "Nureyev, lie down. I'm going to get my medical supplies."

"I don't want to inconvenience you —"

"Lie down before I knock you out or you bleed out, Nureyev." He walked over to the cabinet closest to the front door, and pulled out the drawer containing his assortment of bandages and disinfectant and other medical supplies he'd collected over time.

"Interesting. I didn't think of looking there."

"You're used to looking for things people are trying to hide. I need these somewhere easy to get to. I need you to take your shirt off."

"My, how forward of you, Detective."

"Don't make me reconsider helping you."

"Of course." Nureyev unbuttoned his shirt, more peeling it off of the area around his wound than anything else. Juno grabbed a wet cloth and began gingerly wiping the blood off Nureyev's torso, where it was covering most of one side of his body from his hip to the surgical scars on his chest.

"How does it look, Doctor Steel?" Nureyev said in a lighthearted, humorous tone, though Juno could see him wincing.

"Well, you probably should have told me you got _shot_ as soon as I came in."

"Perhaps."

"It didn't hit anything vital — there's a lot of blood, but it missed your organs."

"Good to know."

"Disinfecting it's going to hurt, though."

"I imagine so."

"Nureyev, I —" Juno sighed, considering his next words carefully. "I understand if you're not comfortable with it, but I don't want to cause you pain if I don't need to, and it'll be easier for me to disinfectant it if I can put you under first."

"I — wait, why do you already have anaesthetics in your home, Juno?"

"I — Rita may possibly have had to do this for me before."

"Oh. That makes sense." He thought for a second, and Juno could see his eyes flicking around the room, cataloguing every possible entry and exit point.

"I'm not going to let anyone hurt you while you're out, Nureyev." If he could, he wouldn't let anyone hurt Nureyev at all, he realised. But, he couldn't allow himself to dwell on the thought.

Nureyev stares at him hard for a second, like he's evaluating him, analysing him. Then his gaze softened.

"I trust you, Juno. If you think it's best, I'm ok with it."

Juno suddenly, desperately wanted to reach for Nureyev, who seemed far more weakened, much more _human_ now than Juno had ever seen him. But now was not the time to allow his many, many feelings about Nureyev to complicate matters. So, he nodded and began searching the drawer for the supplies he needed.

Treating the wound was, with Nureyev under anaesthetic, ultimately fairly simple. Juno had done it before under much worse circumstances. But still, he could feel a certain tension in his body as he worked, like he was waiting for something to go wrong. Nureyev had placed his life in Juno's hands, and he knew he wouldn't have done so if he didn't trust Juno absolutely. And Juno knew he certainly wouldn't trust himself like that, but if Nureyev was going to, then Juno was going to try his best not to let him down.

He allowed some of the tension to bleed out of himself when Nureyev's wound was treated and bandaged. He sat in his chair watching the slow rise and fall of Nureyev's chest.

It was strange, seeing Nureyev this vulnerable. The thief was usually so put together, so in control. Juno wasn't even sure he'd seen him when things weren't going to plan before today. And yet, here he was. This wasn't quite the man who sent him letters from all over the world, nor the man he'd seen executing so many heists and talking his way into a million different places. He didn't have the same tension in his face, and Juno could see the sharpened teeth poking out from his mouth in his sleep. 

He shook his head. He was still a detective, tied down to one place as much as any of the buildings lining the streets or the weeds growing through cracks in the paving stones, and Nureyev was still a thief, never staying in any one place for too long. A relationship between the two of them wouldn't work, no matter how pretty and charming Nureyev was. Juno had the scraps of his reputation to hold onto, and he was sure Nureyev had something of a better reputation than he did in his own circles. More than anything, Nureyev would get bored. He deserved better than Juno. So, Juno couldn't even allow himself to entertain the thought of letting anything happen between them. So, he did all he could let himself do, and silently watched over him.

Juno listened to every sound of the houses and the street around them, every footstep and fabric rustle and conversation passing by as the city woke up around them. He kept his hand on his pistol, ready to shoot if anything happened. He could feel his eyelids drooping by the time the sun rose. But, as the first rays of sunlight filtered through the still closed curtains, Nureyev stirred.

"How do you feel?" Juno said, softly, as Nureyev opened his eyes and sat up gingerly.

"I've had worse."

"Well, you should be ok. Just take it slow for the next few days."

"Well, I imagine I'll be travelling, so that can be arranged."

"Just don't go looking for trouble, ok?"

"Why, Detective, anyone would think you cared about me."

"Maybe." Nureyev raised an eyebrow, but there was fondness in his gaze. "Well, I really should get ready."

"I'm not sure how well it'll fit, but I can lend you a shirt."

"That would be appreciated, thank you."

Juno went into his bedroom and surveyed his shirts. They were pretty much all more functional than pretty, something that hadn't bothered Juno up to this moment. He picked out the longest of his shirts that didn't look like he'd been thrown into the river in it, and returned to the living room with it. Nureyev had apparently pulled a comb and a mirror from his coat and started fixing his hair. Juno passed him the shirt. It looked very crumpled somehow on Nureyev, and it was hardly long enough for him to tuck in, but he managed to wrangle it into looking vaguely presentable. He turned to Juno with a smile bright and warm enough Juno could barely stand to look at him.

"Juno, dear, I really must get going. I have some loose ends from yesterday, and we don't want to have your neighbors talking."

"I don't think my neighbours care that much."

"What, so a beautiful man leaving your residence in the early morning in your clothes won't raise any eyebrows?" Juno gave him an unimpressed look. Nureyev laughed. "I'll be back, Juno. And, I —" Nureyev seemed to consider his next words very carefully. "...Thank you. For your help."

"Stay safe, Nureyev."

"Don't I always?" Juno rolled his eyes. "Until next time, Juno, dearest."

And with that, he smiled, and then he was gone.

Juno collapsed back into his chair, suddenly overcome by exhaustion. Before he could even think about going to bed, he was fast asleep, and if he dreamed of a charming thief with a sharp smile, nobody needed to know. 

**Author's Note:**

> comment or ill break into your house and eat all your cereal


End file.
